Various content sources and web sites incorporate an auction process for determining shared content to distribute along with the content. Shared content may be directed towards goods or services, and include information about the goods or services and/or meta data associated with the goods or services. The meta data may include a link to an external web site, serving additional information about the goods or services.
The shared content may be incorporated instream along with the content being served. Thus, if a user accesses the content, the shared content may be presented before or during the presentation of the content.
The auction process for shared content distribution employs a bidding process. Thus, various parties that are associated with the shared content may bid for certain search queries/keywords associated with the content source. For example, if a visitor to the content source searches for dog videos, the auction process may serve shared content at a rate contingent on a bid submitted by each shared content provider.
The content source may desire to maximize revenue. Thus, in choosing shared content to serve alongside content already being served, the content source may select the highest bid recorded during the auction process.